Easy Peasy Funky French Mani Tutorial

Hello Lab Partners!

In a previous post, I showed you swatches of various mint green polishes I have in my stash. Today, I'm going to show you how to do a super-easy funky French mani using one of those mint greens, Sinful Colors Mint Apple, as the base color. I know we have quite a few nail novices following our blog, so I wanted to create a tutorial appropriate for those who've never even thought of attempting any type of nail art or design. For those of you who are experienced nail polish-devotees, you'll want to take a look at these colors I used because I love how they look together.

You can choose whatever color combo you like. This is a great mani for showing of contrasting colors or colors within the same family. I chose colors within the green family: Sinful Colors Mint Apple and Sinful Colors Last Chance, plus a coat of  butter LONDON Frilly Knickers to add some sparkle.

L to R: Sinful Colors Mint Apple, Sinful Colors Last Chance, butter LONDON Frilly Knickers

Now, Let's get started! Personally, I like to coat the area around my nails with some balm. Here, I'm using Vaseline. If you're opposed to using petrolatum products, there are plenty of other balm-type products you can use, or you can choose to skip applying balm altogether. Next, we start on the nails. After creating a smooth foundation with a good base coat, paint your nails with a base color of your choice Always use thin coats to prevent bubbling, letting each coat dry several minutes before applying the next. How many coats you'll need will depend on the polish you use. You want an even, streak-free surface. Here's what my mani looked like after two coats of Sinful Colors Mint Apple:

Inside, artificial light

Outside

Next, you'll need to let your base color dry completely. Here's why: you're going to apply tape to your nails for the next step to achieve those straight edges for the angles tips. You didn't think I painted those tip free-hand, did you? I have enough trouble walking in a straight line! I use strips of regular Scotch tape--nothing fancy!. Before applying it to your nails, pat it several times on your hand or arm to get some of the stickiness off. You don't want the tape to be so sticky that it pulls off part of your base color. Once you've removed a bit of the stickiness from the tape, apply it at an angle on each nail of one hand. You can choose how sharp you'd like the angles, but I suggest avoiding too subtle an angle because you want the angle to look intentional, not like you were going for horizontal line that ended up tilted a bit. Trust me, I've made that mistake! Work one hand at a time because it's much easier than having tape on both hands at once. Here's what my hand looks like with the tape applied:

Next, you simply use your second color to paint your tips. You draw the polish right over the tape onto the tips of your nails. It's that simple! I used Sinful Colors Last Chance, a deep forest green, for the tips. I only needed one coat, but you might need two or even three coats to achieve opacity and evenness. Again, exercise patience here by letting each coat dry several minutes before applying the next. There are differing opinions on when to remove the tape. Some like their polish to be quite dry. I prefer to pull it off right away. You'll need to get in your lab and experiment to discover what gives you the best results. After pulling the tape off of one hand, let the polish dry thoroughly before taping and painting the nails on the other hand. Here's what my nails looked like after painting my tips:

At this point, you can apply a top coat and be done with your mani. But I wanted to add a bit of sparkle to this mani, so I applied 1 coat of butter LONDON Frilly Knickers, a very dainty sparkle polish. People often wonder whether this polish applies clear or white, as it looks milky white in the bottle. Just to see what would happen--that's what we like to do here at The Polish Lab--I swatched my thumb nail with three coats of Frilly Knickers. You can see from the photo below that it does become a bit milky after three coats, but it's still mostly translucent.

butter LONDON Frilly Knickers, 3 coats

For this mani, however, I applied a single coat, and it contributed no milkiness whatsoever, simply a delicate glitter I adore. Here's the end result:

Outside

I wish this photo captured the sparkle better, but that's a glitter for you--they can be difficult to capture in photos. Trust me, when these little glitter pieces catch the sunlight, they're gorgeous! This is one of those manis that kept me looking at my hands!

So there you have it. That was easy!

Until next time, sending lots of lab love your way,

Allison